June 22, 2007

Funding for HSR Clears Committees; Most HSR Agencies See Increases

On June 21, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a draft FY 2008 spending bill that was approved by the Senate Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations just two days prior. The corresponding House subcommittee passed its bill on June 7, but full committee mark up was postponed to July 9.

The measures provide funding for the principal funders of HSR (AHRQ, CDC, CMS, and NIH). Highlights for these agencies include:

- AHRQ would receive a $10 million increase, bringing overall funding to $329 million in FY 2008, including $78.9 million for patient safety and HIT research (a $5 million decrease) and $30 million for comparative effectiveness research (a $15 million increase). In addition, the Senate Committee report language states that the committee "is troubled that AHRQ's investigator-initiated research portfolio has languished" and urges AHRQ to invest at least as much in this research as it does intramural research. In fact, the committee "urges the Department [of HHS] to expand funding for AHRQ's investigator initiated research in its FY 2009 budget request."

- Within CDC's budget, the Senate and House both provide $31 million for public health research. The National Center for Health Statistics, would receive $117 million in the Senate's bill; an $8 million increase over FY 2007. In the Senate committee's report language, the Committee "encourages NCHS to continue making data accessible to the public as soon as possible" and notes that it has provided enough funding to continue uninterrupted collection of vital statistics in FY 2008. We have heard unofficially that the level of funding in the House bill for NCHS is $120 million in FY 2008.

- NIH would receive $29.6 billion under the House subcommittee bill and $29.9 billion under the Senate bill. Assuming the proportion of funds invested in health services research remains consistent at 3.30 percent of total funding, we can expect $977 million to be dedicated to NIH's HSR in the House and $287 in the Senate version.

- CMS would receive $20.0 million in the House bill and $35 million in the Senate bill for research, demonstrations, and evaluations, compared to $57 million in FY 2007. In the Senate bill, this includes approximately $11 million in earmarks.

On June 15, the House approved a spending bill for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs that includes $480 million for Medical and Prosthetic Research. This program includes funding for VA's Health Services Research and Development Service. Assuming the proportion of funds invested in HSR remains consistent at 15.5 percent of total funding for Medical and Prosthetic Research, funding for health services research will be approximately $74 million; a $10 million increase over FY 2006.

The report language in the House version of the bill, the Committee recognizes that the VHA "is uniquely positioned to lead the nation in applying medical research to medical practice" and "encourages the Department to expand its research in [evidence-based medicine and clinical efficacy].and to increase its efforts to share those outcomes within the national health care community."

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed its bill on June 14, including $500 million for Medical and Prosthetic Research; at this level, we estimate funding for HSR to be $77 million.

For a side-by-side comparison of how HSR fares in the House and Senate bills, as well as the Coalition's funding targets, please see our funding chart.

For more specific information on funding for HHS programs and agencies in the House, please visit: appropriations.house.gov/pdf/08LHDetail_HouseSC_WEB.pdf